There's nothing for you here

Politicians sit yourselves down, there's nothing for you here
Won't you please come to Chicago for a ride
Don't ask jack to help you `cause he'll turn the other ear
Won't you please come to Chicago or else join the other side

I was born in the Chicago area. My parents left when I was six months old. I lived in the Chicago area for five years. We've been back to visit twice, briefly, in the last month. Chicago is an important part of my life. And in many parts of the city, it's become Hell:

Dozens of people have been wounded in weekend shootings across Chicago police said.

63 people have been shot, ten fatally, since 5 p.m. Friday. 34 of the shootings and five deaths occurred between 10 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday, according to police.

During one two-and-a-half hour-hour period, 25 people were shot in five multi-injury shootings. One paramedic described Saturday evening into Sunday morning as "a war zone."

"We know that some of these incidents were targeted and are related to gang conflicts in those areas," said Chicago Police Chief of Patrol Fred Waller at a press conference Sunday afternoon.

CPD said the majority of the shootings took place in the six, tenth and 11th districts and that gunmen shot into large crowds.

That last part is what merits particular attention. If you had active shooters firing into large crowds most other places in the country, it would be a huge story and David Hogg would be on the scene. In Chicago, you say? Crickets.

But this really isn't about guns or gun control. There are plenty of gun laws on the books in Chicago, but the bullets fly anyway. The areas in question are on the south side and the west side of Chicago, in neighborhoods that were dangerous 25 years ago and remain so today. 

The Onion is a parody site, but too often it tells the truth:

Garfield Park? No problem. Hyde Park? Problem

The lyrics excerpted above, written in the moment when 60s idealism was turning to cynicism, aren't accurate. There's always been something in Chicago for politicians. It's the people in Lawndale, and Garfield Park, and Woodlawn, who have nothing. It never surprises me to read these reports, but it always saddens me.